LEDs, light emitting diodes, are a very old invention, with the first visible-light diode being invented in 1962. They consist of a junction of semiconducting material, such as a silicon or gallium compound. However, scientists today are looking to teach this old dog some new tricks, and putting LEDs to work in a plethora of creative uses.

The magic is in the material. While LEDs have been around for a long time, new and exotic materials are being used and older materials are being tweaked and reformulated to provide, a wider range of colors, brighter light, and higher efficiency.

Now one place scientists are looking to plant the LED is in the home. Tungsten lightbulbs have a very low 5% efficiency, compared to modern LEDs, which have around a healthy 40% efficiency. The result is power savings, increased brightness, and superior life. Obstacles standing in the way of this development are the still higher cost of LEDs and the fact that LEDs' white light has much more blue than sunlight or natural bulbs. However, these obstacles are fading as costs slowly drop and scientists develop better material blends to provide more yellow to the LED's emissions, making for a warm light that would be welcome in many a household.

Scientists are also looking to put tiny LEDs to a new use in the lab and eventually in commercial internet connections -- quantum cryptography. Tiny streams of photons in the system would pass from the LED to the a detector. Any interception of the beam (ie. snooping) would result in the signal being altered, as per the observer effect. Such a system, when properly implemented would be in theory immune to any sort of malicious interception between the sender and the receiver.

Yet another use for the little lights has been proposed by scientists -- this one with promise of bringing new high-tech hope to impoverished regions. One of the world's largest problems is the lack of clean drinking water in third-world nations. Chemicals can be used to treat drinking water, but they are often expensive, toxic, and require a large amount of infrastructure. A frequently used alternative is high-energy UV light known as "deep UV", emitted from special UV bulbs. Passing a beam of this light through water kills most bacteria and destroys most viruses cleanly and simply. The issue with this system is bulbs constantly need to be replaced and are two bulky for small scale use.

Scientists feel the answer is deep UV LEDs. While they are still working on perfecting the materials, researchers, such as Dr Rachel Oliver, an LED researcher from the University of Cambridge, think it is just a matter of time before the optimal combination of materials is found.

"Deep-UV can't be made from the combination of materials we're used to, although I certainly think it's possible," Dr. Oliver stated.

Dr. Oliver is among many researchers striving to put LEDs to use in new and creative ways. She sees LEDs being commercially implemented in the aforementioned uses within 10 to 20 years.

For now these prospects still remaining cost prohibitive and are dependent on material breakthroughs, but the future sure looks bright for these little devices. And companies are looking to put LEDs today to a different and even more outlandish use -- clothing -- every airport security officer's worst nightmare.

Whatever their form, LEDs are transforming the way we light and see our world.

"This is from the DailyTech.com. It's a science website." -- Rush Limbaugh